https://brentsheridan.com/insightsBLOG RSSWed, 08 Jan 2020 06:26:08 GMTWed, 08 Jan 2020 06:26:08 GMThttps://brentsheridan.com/insights/renovating-our-mindsets-is-not-as-hard-as-we-thinkRecently we facilitated an online development session focusing on the Immunity to Change process created and developed by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey. They initially documented this process about 20 years ago in How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work, and in 2009 published Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization (Leadership for the Common Good). They continue to use it in their most recent work, An Everyone Culture.The ImmunityFri, 17 Apr 2020 09:06:14https://brentsheridan.com/insights/renovating-our-mindsets-is-not-as-hard-as-we-thinkhttps://brentsheridan.com/insights/resilience-requires-trust-2click here to read Step 1: Value trustStep 2: Develop my trustingnessWhy is trust so important?Trust is deep rooted in our bodies and in our minds. It is a foundational part of being a human being. It is all about survival and feeling safe in the world. Our ‘reptilian’ brain (the evolutionarily oldest, non-conscious and fastest working parts) makes split second and mostly unconscious decisions to trust or to not trust; this is our survival assessment. Decades of research (for example,Fri, 12 Jun 2020 08:05:37https://brentsheridan.com/insights/resilience-requires-trust-2https://brentsheridan.com/insights/resilience-requires-trust-1Creating Organisational sustainability through increased trustWe are going through an era where our trust in organisations and leaders is at an all-time low. A recent survey (the ‘Australia Talks’ national survey) conducted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation gathered data from more than 54,000 diverse Australians on a range of topics covered by almost 500 questions. In relation to trust, while politicians were the second least trusted group, with only 19% of all respondents trustingSun, 15 Jan 2023 03:58:59https://brentsheridan.com/insights/resilience-requires-trust-1https://brentsheridan.com/insights/reorganising-for-customer-value-part-2Another lean/agile principle called “flow efficiency” helps guide how the organisation’s operating model is constructed to ensure that it maximises the flow of value to the end customer and enhance the customer’s overall experience. While it might seem counter-productive through the lens of operational efficiency (e.g. resource efficiency), this principle works on the premise that more satisfied customers are more likely to remain customers. The “value stream map” is the construct used to ensureWed, 08 Apr 2020 09:48:59https://brentsheridan.com/insights/reorganising-for-customer-value-part-2https://brentsheridan.com/insights/reorganising-for-customer-valueWith the advance of technology and the digital age, it is increasingly challenging for organisations to stay relevant to their customers. Technology is enabling customers to have many more choices about the products or services they purchase. Also with the global challenge of environmental sustainability, individuals are becoming more discerning about the products they buy. Value must be defined from multiple perspectives for the modern consumer.For example, the recent royal commission intoWed, 08 Apr 2020 09:49:03https://brentsheridan.com/insights/reorganising-for-customer-valuehttps://brentsheridan.com/insights/agility-and-self-management-requires-emotional-competencePeeling the onionSeeking to understand the inner working of our own mind, and the minds of others, is a bit like peeling an onion. There are layers and layers to us, and just when you might imagine that you’d finally ‘got to the bottom it’, likely there would be another layer underneath that one.Advocating that everyone should act like an adult, and get along well with others, and play nicely, and be trustworthy, and be trusting, and collaborate in self-managing teams, because we all haveWed, 08 Apr 2020 10:10:15https://brentsheridan.com/insights/agility-and-self-management-requires-emotional-competencehttps://brentsheridan.com/insights/supercharge-your-relationships-with-skilful-self-disclosureBusiness agility will usually entail rapid organisational responses to emerging opportunities (and threats). Often this means quickly putting new teams together that must be productive and deliver results in very short time frames.Agile and lean systems-of-work help these types of team organise their work, collaborate, and focus on priorities. But no codified work process is sufficient without trust and constructive relationships.Self-disclosure creates relationships, which creates trust.Fri, 17 Apr 2020 07:06:51https://brentsheridan.com/insights/supercharge-your-relationships-with-skilful-self-disclosurehttps://brentsheridan.com/insights/developing-capability-for-collaborative-adaptationOne of the most pernicious capability problems facing global businesses is how to continuously adapt every aspect of their business (strategy, structure, market, product, systems, …) at multiple levels of complexities, over different timeframes, all simultaneously. This is the complex-adaptive-problem of our complex-adaptive-times.The situationA few years ago, we were asked to work with a global financial services business alongside one of our alliance partners. This financial servicesFri, 17 Apr 2020 06:59:30https://brentsheridan.com/insights/developing-capability-for-collaborative-adaptationhttps://brentsheridan.com/insights/incentives-motivationDan Pink provides some food for thought here that should have us re-think the standard approach to organisational processes that deal with design of work and work-systems, performance, pay, incentives and motivation. That is quite impressive for an animation less than 11 minutes long.Wed, 08 Apr 2020 09:49:06https://brentsheridan.com/insights/incentives-motivationhttps://brentsheridan.com/insights/building-an-agile-culture-of-trust-resiliency-and-customer-focusThe Organisational ContextA large multi-national bank had expanded its service offering through a series of acquisitions of specialised service providers. The bank was struggling to rationalise and integrate these new business units into an integrated whole.They were also struggling with putting their customers’ needs first. The typical customers’ experience was anything but integrated; it was slow and inconsistent in how it delivered its service offerings, with many people complaining aboutFri, 17 Apr 2020 07:05:11https://brentsheridan.com/insights/building-an-agile-culture-of-trust-resiliency-and-customer-focushttps://brentsheridan.com/insights/four-lessons-of-leadershipLesson #1A living social system is a self-generating network of communications. The aliveness of an organization resides in its informal networks, or communities of practice. Bringing life into human organizations means empowering their communities of practice.Lesson #2You can never direct a social system; you can only disturb it. A living network chooses which disturbances to notice and how to respond. A message will get through to people in a community of practice when it is meaningful toWed, 08 Apr 2020 09:49:08https://brentsheridan.com/insights/four-lessons-of-leadershiphttps://brentsheridan.com/insights/the-work-of-leadership"First, leaders must design and redesign their organizations (and their consciousness) rather than trying to “fix” them into perfection. In the problem-reacting life stance we try to eliminate problem after problem, hoping against hope that when we are done, we will be left with what we really want. This is not design; it is demolition. It is the approach of the symptomatic quick fix. In spite of our addiction to it, we must learn that it simply does not work. Our tendency to react toWed, 08 Apr 2020 09:49:11https://brentsheridan.com/insights/the-work-of-leadershiphttps://brentsheridan.com/insights/how-to-increase-your-level-of-thinkingThe businesses we work in and the environments they operate in are getting more complex. Nevertheless, most businesses today are no better equipped to deal with this escalating complexity than they were in the past. This is a folly that will have serious consequences.Fri, 17 Apr 2020 07:01:04https://brentsheridan.com/insights/how-to-increase-your-level-of-thinkinghttps://brentsheridan.com/insights/complex-thinking-needed-for-a-complex-worldIn his book The Turning Point, Fritjof Capra puts forward the view that our world’s present social, economic and environmental crises are all merely different facets of one and the same crisis, a crisis of perception. He states that this crisis of perception comes from the fact that we are trying to apply an out dated paradigm (a mechanistic ‘Newtonian’ approach) to a reality that no longer fits that mental model.Wed, 08 Apr 2020 09:49:33https://brentsheridan.com/insights/complex-thinking-needed-for-a-complex-world